~HAPPY HALLOWEEN ~

Today is a day that children throughout America consider one of the most incredible days of the year. All you gotta do is knock on someones door and when they answer shout out....."Trick or treat " and chances are they will give you a candy bar or "treat " you instead of the alternate "Trick" wich might include soap on your car windows or perhaps toilet paper strung through your trees or some tricks that I won`t even mention.
There is more to this day than the quaint picture I set out in the last paragraph. Throughout time it has been a magical sort of day when perhaps your predicessors in death may come to re - visit you . To perhaps settle a score or to prepare you for following them. Who can know the reasons,who can know if they are true?
Science has been trying to prove that there is no such thing as spirits or ghosts or goblins with no success. They can no more disprove it as the "Believers" can prove it.All I know this is my tale and I swear on my childrens lives that it is all 100 % true.
Being Irish in ancestry I love Celtic things. I have a dear friend on the internet whom I asked a huge imposition of and she complied willingly and cheerfully. I was greatfull for her effort then and even more so now.I asked her if she could find a metalsmith and ask him if he would craft a Celtic cross for me that I could wear, something, that would reflect my heritige.Very soon she had found the man for the job and he crafted a fine cross out of pewter and in its center it had a small green unpolished stone about the size of a green pea. She felt it should be unpolished since my being a manly man sort of man, if it were polished it would be more like jewlery as opposed to it's being a symbol of my deep and abiding faith.
She accomplished this task and would not take a penny for it which made it all the more valuble to me. She said anything that a man would use to get closer to his God should be given free, gratious. That if money were tied to it it would somehow spoil it.She sent it to me as soon as it was done and I put it round my neck and there it stayed untill the chain broke and I removed it from my inside my shirt and held it as I took a leather boot lace off my boot and strung it up gain and put it round my neck till I could find another chain. I had it fixed on the next trip to town and it stayed around my neck ever since and has not ever left ....BUT............. The stone fell from it and was lost somewhere. It was a dull stone with no luster and a natural color so that it would blend in anywhere and how it pained me I can never let you know because it was a lovely gift given by a dear friend and it had importance to me.
About a year later we bought new living room furniture and I will be the first to admit my chair is a great place to nap.It is overstuffed and it is brown corduroi and very comfortable. Very. I stress that because as I was sitting in my chair one afternoon . I was all alone and the house was quiet I was watching my favorite John Wayne movie, "THE QUIET MAN" and I had a habit of fondeling my cross absent mindedly. I fell asleep and as I heard the VCR begin to rewind I woke up and had a great need to use the bathroom. I extended my hands to the ends of the arms of the chair and I felt something under my left hand. I raised it carefully and there on the arm of my new furniture was the stone from my cross. How it got there I will never know. Ido know I am greatfull it has been returned to me .Very . I stress this very also because I found out a few days later that my friend who had my cross made for me had passed on at the same moment I was sleeping in my chair. Are these things related? I don't know But I wish I did. One of these days perhaps I will see her again and if I do I am sure gonna ask her if she did this for me.

IN MEMORY 

~ 2000 ~

News has been recieved from Iraq of the 2,000th soldier killed in Iraq. While 2,000 lives being snuffed out with so much life left to live and promises to give is horribile and should make any Americans blood run cold, I must call on you Mothers and Fathers and Sisters And Brothers to not enter into why we either stay or go from Iraq. I need each and evry one of you to stay strong. To stay the course. Your family member was doing what they believd to be the right thing for the right reasons. They so believed in what they were doing it cost them their lives and it cost each and everyone of you their presense in your lives.
Please support the continuance of our efforts in Iraq. Make their sacrifice mean something. Do NOT cheapen it by calling for our withdrawal. We all feel that one death is too many but reality bites as as it tells us to honor our loved ones who were killed in service of their nation.
2000 Deaths, 4,000 Mothers and Fathers grieving, unknown brothers sisters cousens and aunties.
Who knows the number of loved ones who are affected by this, their friends, co-workers-people who somewhere in the future their lives paths will cross. The untold contributions to medicine,music,poetry,art, or just being a friend.
Listen up America 33,000 men made the roles as casulties of war on the first day of the invasion of France on just Normandy beach. Was Euoropes freedoms more important than those of todays Iraqi? Was the horror of torture and the brutality of Auswietz more horrific than what was commited in Saddams torture camps?
Please America support our troops . Don't make them come home to what I was greeted with when I left Viet Nam . A nation who thought we were bad guys for all we gave A Nation who thought we were crazed killers and drugged out freaks. We weren't. We were your sons and daughters whose family was made to feel ashamed of what we tried to do.We weren`t wanted in Viet Nam and we weren"t wanted here. Don`t do that to these awesome Americans that are giving their all. You didn`t help us .......help them.

~ IT JUST AIN"T FAIR ~

I could barely believe my senses this morning as I looked out on my deck. We have already accumulated almost two inches of snow. Although that is no great shakes it is pretty incredible because our trees are still green and we are still cutting the grass. Even my neighbors flowers look great with their little white borders of snow. Guess I gotta go find the sled.....hehehehehe

~ For Good Health ~

To all you wonderfull readers out there in Bloggerland, If you want to stay healthy avoid Drs. visit like the plague. I think sometimes they pay the nurses a little overtime to spray a handfull of germs in the waiting room before the patients start coming in. That way regardless of why you are there to see the Doctor, you will have to make another appointment to get rid of the cold or flu or sniffles or what ever sort of malady the nurses were able to set out to keep em commin Doc.
Of course I know that is false, they dump the germs in the hallways and foyers. That way everyone can share in the wealth of our misery.Well I am sure you get my jist seems like every time I go I catch sumpin in the waiting room. I have sent out a request for permission to use dangerous and addictive drugs so that I can shake this dreaded malady and I am earnestly praying that someone will bring me that noxious bottle of vile tasting but works so good medicine so I can rest. Hope to post more tomorrow or maybe later if the meds don`t wipe me out.

EUREEKA !!!!!!!!

Just a brief posting to let my friends and family know.... I recieved a phone call yesterday informing me that on Nov. 8 th I will have to travel into the city and I will have my first appointment with the surgeon and they say it will last nearly three hours. They will want some nudes and I hope I am not too embarrassed considering my doc is a female.. I am sure I will get through it with no problem. I will post more after the exam and let you know the particulars.


And to a matter that has absolutely NO significance it is really easy to remove a comment from a individual posting or if I deem it worthy I can have the offending ,mis-informed, maladjusted scum sucking example of pond scum, banned for life with a simple key stroke.........Hmmmm shall I press or not? Only the shadow knows Bwahahahahahaha

~ One More Step ~

Yesterday was a truly wasted day. I went to the Doctors for a 8:30 Am appointment and he showed up around 11:00 and considering that I wasn't first I had to wait even after that.Finally He came into my room looking suprised to see me. "what brings you in today ? I wondered why on earth he would ask that when written on my chart in his own illegible chicken scatch follow up apptment in two weeks.He asked me to weigh in again apparently he had forgotten his scale wasn't up to the job.He cleared his throat in his most docterly manner and asked "well, are you ready to start on a licquid diet? " Appearently he forgot that I told him the time before last that I was there that I couldn't afford the nearly 200 bucks a month that that would cost. I informed him as much and he told me that He is ready for me to partake in a six month supervised dietary program. I informed him that I didn't think that I would still be alive in six months and he nodded and said to his nurse get him fixed up with the nutrishinist They informed me at the desk that I should return on the 11 of November to begin my 6 month diet. and todays visit will be 25 dollars thank you very much.I think it will be a miracle if I live long enough to even see a freakin surgeon. Wish me luck I need to learn patience and I mean NOW

~ Dearest Sheba ~

I wondered at first just what you were going on about and then I realized that I am in the presence of a intellect far far greater than my own. In light of this fact, please E~Mail me and I will give you the necessary permissions to also post on my blog so that all these good people no longer need to read my clap trap and can give your wittisims all the considerations they deserve.I look forward to your responce. OR You can kiss My ass you worthless piece of festering crap. Do you think I give a rats ass as to your opinions? I blog cause I am a pompus ass and I don`t give one whit as to what anyone thinks.

~ Mans Inhumanity To Man ~

I was appalled yesterday to see our local news report about a terribly appaling story. It seems that there was a lady in a trailer park that was pregnant and her neighbor and friend decided she wanted her baby. She knocked her friend in the head with a baseball bat and tried to remove the unborn fetus from its mother with a razor knife. The mother recieved a six inch deep cut in her attempt to steal the child. Fortunately a young man riding his quad came upon the scene and seeing immediately what was happening went and got his Dad and told his Mom to call 911. Thanks to this young man Mother and child are alive and doing ok and their attacker is being held in jail till her trial. I am so proud of him to survey what was going on and then do the right thing, required nerves of steel and he is to be commended for his responce.

~ Things That Make You Go HMMMM ~

As I sat this morning in the exquisite calm and quiet of my kitchen , slowly sipping that elixer of the Gods that help me make it through the day, I reached for the remote control (funny now that things have remotes that it is considered broken and unusable because you would have to get up and manually adjust it ) and absently pressed the power button. It hummed and whirred and brightened the room and before I could get another sip of coffee the news story flashed to the hospital room of a 38 year old woman who had just given birth to her sixteenth child. Her family encircled her bed and I realized that it would be decades before she would ever have the ultimate treat of a quiet morning and a good hot cup o joe. The poor dear said they were considering having more children in the future but damn just damn aint that enough? My mother in law always said that you can eat sugar till it tastes like salt and I imagine that she should have a pretty salty taste in her mouth by now.

A Deck With Built In Live Music

It was a great delight to find my neighbors having a live band on their deck this afternoon. I was able to sit on my deck and enjoy a Sunday afternoon concert !!!!!! Again many thanks to the band. You guys are soundin great !!!

A Change I Could Live With

This came to me in a E ~ Mail and was so good I wanted to share it with you "We the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, delusional, and other liberal bed-wetters. We hold these truths to be self evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim they require a Bill of NON-Rights." ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV, or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything. ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc.; but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be. ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful, do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy. ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes. ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care. ARTICLE VI: You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair. ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure. ARTICLE VIII: You do not have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful. ARTICLE IX: You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness which, by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights. ARTICLE X: This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from! lastly.... ARTICLE XI: You do not have the right to change our country's history or heritage. This country was founded on the belief in one true God. And yet, you are given the freedom to believe in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all; with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our heritage and history and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!!!! If you agree, share this with a friend. No, you don't have to, and nothing tragic will befall you if you don't. I just think it's about time common sense is allowed to flourish. Sensible people of the United States speak out, because if you don't, insensible people will.

A Ongoing Tale........

It seems so long ago when I told you good people that I had decided that I would undergo gastric by-pass surgery in a effort to help me lose some weight and become once more, a productive member of society and more importantly my family. Finally I have been able to talk my primary care physcian into helping me accomplish this very thing.
I had a doctors appointment on Wedensday morning and as always, his office was crowded. He has a tendency to overbook,God forbid he should have a five minute gap between patients, we wouldn't want him to be unproductive even for a moment. It probably means the difference between him driving the basic Cadilac sedan or that hottest new edition Porshe that has been on all the commercials. At least he has the decency to install a high def TV with souround sound in the waiting room and a smaller version in each of the exam rooms. I thought it was very considerate of him to go to that expense for his patients, but I came to find out that it was to provide better patient privacy so he isn't looking at the business end of a law suit. I guess as my mother in law always said "what you see may not always be the fish you are being sold."
After a 1.5 hour wait I was pleased to see his nurse hang a sign on my door that said simply~ doc next ~ I am so much more at ease knowing that he has to be told who is up next.As is his custom he came in and asked what was the reason I was here today and what was bothering me. I had to refresh his memory as to my reason for being there is to get his referral for gastric by- pass surgery. You would think that somewhere in that weighty file placed on the door for his perusal that he would notice that I can not even weigh on his scale any longer.Perhaps he sould get one of those really attractive freight scales with the LED display. That always is patient friendly when he dosen't have to yell out to his staff to see if I can go over to the meat market accross the street for a accurate weight.
After much cajoling I finally convinced him that I could wait no longer and that if I don`t get on with this process damned soon He could just as well come to the funeral and after a decent time has gone by, make the wifie a decent offer on the property.He had his staff pull out all of the surgens in this area who do this surgery and will accept my insurance and it was whitled down mearcefully to three groups. I recieved instructions to call them all and attempt to make my appointment as soon as humanly possible and that he would do all he could by way of letters and recomendtions to help me get this going on. Wooooo Hooooooo On the way !!!!!!!!!!!
Well enough of that jocularity reality sat in when I called the top one on the list and his staff said sorry he no longer accepts that insurance. Undaunted I called #2 on the sheet. His staff said he only does a not really good version of the proceedure . He uses a banding method and it in reality is fraught with peril.On to good ol #3. Her staff tells me she only will accept patients that have been on a 6 month supervised diet. Well I have been on with my primry care guy and the staff tells me he would have to confirm that in writing . No problem he said he would so I am still hopefull. Next they wanted almost a complete history over the phone and of course ,desperate now I complied. They told me that they will send out a packet of information asap and to look for it in the mail. True to their word it came today. I eagerly tore this weighty document open only to find about fifty pages of info about the process and its indications for doing it and possible problems and expected stages of recovery and almost every thing you could want to know including 10 web sites,where I could get almost any question answered at any time of the day.That I'm sure will come in very handy good to be informed about things.
IT ALSO HAD a 34 page questionair about what drugs i am on and why and the dosages and how long and pevious surgeries and othe problems and how my ancestery has helped me be in this pedicament in the first place. It took two and a half hours to gather all this information and record it dutifully in each of the little boxes they provided. I folded it carefully and put it in the envelope they so thoughtfully provided and licked the awfull tasting glue,sealed the flap and even spread the brass tab for additional security. I turned it over in my hands to be certain that their label was adequately affixed when i n o t i c e d t h a t
t h e a d d r e s s w a s ......................Magee Womans Hospital. Imagine my chagrin when I saw that. I called ,holding my breath, and the staff member informed me that it is ok that they work on men also now.
So I guess I am under way now .......I will keep you posted as to what where when and how. I thought this would make for some interesting reading ,if you dear readers think not please tell me.

Be Back Soon

Hello good people ! I'm not sure that anyone has noticed or even cared for that matter but I have been under the weathr for a bit and am feeling much better now. I will return to a regular posting (Of sorts) soon. Perhaps as early as tomorow. Scary huh????????????